|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 2, 2008
|
|
|
Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
|
HOLT STATEMENT ON ATTORNEY GENERAL MUKASEY’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF INVESTIGATION INTO DESTRUCTION OF INTERROGATIONS TAPES
|
|
|
(Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Chairman of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, today released the following statement about Attorney General Mukasey’s announcement of an investigation, led by John Durham, a federal prosecutor from Connecticut, into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. In December, Holt urged Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the destruction by the CIA of video or audio recordings of detainee interrogations and the CIA’s representations to the court regarding such recordings.
Text of the December 11 letter is accessible through Rep. Holt’s website at http://holt.house.gov/pdf/RH_ltr_to_AG_on_CIA_tapes_investigation.pdf.
“I am pleased Attorney General Mukasey has taken this step. I called for an independent investigation of the destruction of interrogation tapes to ensure that it is fair and nonpartisan. Important questions remain to be answered about the circumstances surrounding the CIA’s creation, handling, destruction, and representations regarding its recording of detainee interrogations to the federal courts, the 9/11 Commission, and Congress. While we continue our Congressional oversight, I hope that Mr. Durham’s investigation will be conducted in a thorough, nonpartisan, and expeditious fashion.
“One should be concerned not that there were tapes—indeed making the tapes was a good thing. One should be concerned that there may have been a cover-up after they were destroyed,” Holt said.
###
|
|
|
|
